Drugs and substances
Confidential support for any kind of substance use.
Online Substance Use Counselling · Cambridge
Online Substance Use Counselling in Cambridge
Online substance use counselling for Cambridge, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Cambridge, from the colleges and the centre to the streets around the Backs, with the same BACP-registered, confidential support as an in-person session, and no journey.
BACP registered member25+ years of experienceLived experience
ConfidentialA safe, private space
Person-centredThe therapy fits you
In and around Cambridge
Substance Use Counselling for Cambridge, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Cambridge: from the colleges and the centre to Mill Road, Cherry Hinton and Chesterton
- Known for
- The colleges, the Backs and the river Cam
- Region
- East of England (England)
- Local NHS / support route
- NHS drug & alcohol service finder (see below)
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Cambridge
What is going on for people in Cambridge?
Drug use in Cambridge tends to be functional before it is recreational. Stimulants to hold an eighteen-hour day together on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, cocaine at the end of a funding round, ketamine or MDMA in the student houses off Mill Road, cannabis to come down far enough to sleep. The rate of deaths from drug misuse locally was 3.6 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, below the England average of 5.8 per 100,000, which is exactly why so much use here goes unexamined. Nothing has gone visibly wrong. The work is still being done, the deadlines still met, and the cost is entirely private.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Cambridge
Mill RoadCherry HintonChestertonTrumpingtonNewnhamRomseyArburyPetersfieldKings HedgesColeridge
Wherever you are in Cambridge, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Cambridge
Official figures for Cambridge, for context rather than as a description of you.
3.3 adults per 1,000 were in treatment at specialist drug-misuse services in 2020/21, below the England average of 4.5 per 1,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Adults in treatment at specialist drug misuse services (2020/21).
the rate of deaths from drug misuse was 3.6 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, below the England average of 5.8 per 100,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Deaths from drug misuse (2022 - 24).
Reviewed June 2026.
What is substance use counselling, in practice?
Substance use counselling here is non-judgemental and one-to-one, working with the pain, fear or loneliness the substance has been managing, at a pace that protects your sense of safety.
The approach does not change with the postcode, so rather than repeat it on every page you can read it in full, the methods and what each session covers, on everything on substance use counselling, alongside session lengths and fees and my credentials and registration.
How does meeting by video work in practice?
Sessions run over a secure, encrypted video link, held to the same BACP confidentiality as meeting in person. After a free fifteen-minute call, you join from any private space on a phone, tablet or laptop.
Sessions happen over secure video from Hove, with no premises anywhere in Cambridgeshire. For drug use in a city this compact, that anonymity is not a small detail. You are not queuing anywhere identifiable and nothing lands in a departmental or clinical record. Slots can be arranged around teaching, shifts at Addenbrooke's, or a lab rota, and using between sessions does not disqualify you from turning up to the next one.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
What sort of things do people bring?
The false self
Letting go of the protective self that no longer serves you.
Specialised attention
One-to-one sessions shaped entirely around you.
Self-discovery
Rediscovering the authentic self beneath the coping.
Anxiety and low mood
Treating what the substance has been masking.
Sustainable change
Growing into recovery rather than forcing it.
Substance Use Counselling in Cambridge
Why people in Cambridge come for substance use counselling
There is no requirement to have stopped, or even to have decided to. Some people arrive using daily, some only around deadlines, some already reducing and unsettled by what appears when they do. What sessions examine is the function: the drug that makes an unmanageable workload feel possible, the one that quiets social dread at a departmental event, the one that closes down a memory. Judgement gets in the way of that, so there is none. Where prescribing, testing or harm reduction is needed, the Change Grow Live drug and alcohol service for Cambridgeshire provides it free, and the NHS find a service directory will point you there. CPSL Mind runs the wider mental health support locally. None of that conflicts with also having one private hour a week in which nothing has to be performed or explained away.
A free, unhurried first step
Not sure if it is right for you? A free fifteen-minute call is a no-obligation way to talk it through.
Book a free 15-minute callDrug, alcohol & addiction support in Cambridge
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. You can find your nearest free NHS-funded drug and alcohol service via the NHS “find a service” directory (search “Cambridge”).
For confidential information and advice, FRANK (on 0300 123 6600) and Drinkline on 0300 123 1110 are free, and Alcoholics Anonymous and SMART Recovery run peer-support meetings you can find online.
Other local and national support verified for this area includes:
If you need urgent help now
This is not a crisis service. If anyone is in immediate danger call 999. For urgent mental health support, call NHS 111 and choose the mental health option. The Samaritans are free, day or night, on 116 123, or text SHOUT to 85258.
If you drink heavily or use drugs daily, do not stop suddenly on your own. Withdrawal can cause seizures and can be dangerous. Speak to your GP or a local drug and alcohol service first, and they can arrange a safe, medically supported withdrawal. Counselling works alongside that, not instead of it.
Cambridge questions
Online Substance Use Counselling in Cambridge: common questions
Do I need to want to quit before I get in touch?
Not at all. Plenty of people begin unsure, or fairly certain they want to carry on. Understanding what the substance does for you is the useful starting point, and any decision about stopping tends to make more sense once that is clear rather than before.
Will this show up anywhere that could affect my visa or my job?
No. There is no NHS record, no note to a university, no letter to an employer and nothing shared with immigration. It is private work paid for privately. For international students and researchers in Cambridge that is frequently the deciding factor.
What are the fees and how often would we meet?
£80 for an hour, £100 for 90 minutes, £120 for two hours, and a free 15-minute call first. Weekly works best early on. If a stimulant habit has already eaten through savings, spacing sessions out is sensible and nobody will treat it as a lack of commitment.
Is this the same as what the NHS drug service offers?
It overlaps but is not the same. The NHS route handles clinical assessment, substitute prescribing and group programmes at no cost. These sessions are one continuous relationship focused on causes, pace and meaning, which statutory caseloads rarely have room to hold.
My use only spikes around deadlines. Is that still worth talking about?
It is, and in Cambridge it is one of the most common patterns described. Use that tracks term dates, grant deadlines or product launches is doing a job. Looking at that job is more useful than counting how many weeks of the year it happens.
Is this only for people who are dependent on drugs?
No. Many people come while use is still functional but growing, unsure whether it is a problem. Working online from Hove, you can explore that honestly around study or work, without a label and without needing to walk into anywhere in town.
Is online substance use counselling available in Cambridge, and when could I begin?
Yes. I see people across Cambridge and the surrounding Fens online, and there is no local waiting list, so most begin within days. After a free 15-minute consultation we set a first session, working around supervisions, deadlines or work at the science parks of Silicon Fen.
How much does substance use counselling cost privately versus the NHS in Cambridge?
I charge £80 for a 60-minute session, £100 for 90 minutes and £120 for 120, and the first 15-minute consultation is free. NHS substance use support in Cambridge is free but access can take time, while private online sessions with me can start promptly and confidentially.
Would substance use counselling be online or in a Cambridge clinic, and are evenings possible?
It is online only, by secure video or phone from Hove, not from a clinic in the city. Many connected to the university or start-ups prefer this, since you take part from your own room. Evening slots are available, so sessions fit around a full day without any travel.
Online Substance Use Counselling in Cambridge, whenever you are ready
A free fifteen-minute call is the simplest place to start, no obligation, just a chance to see if we are the right fit.
Also available online across East of England: Peterborough, Norwich. See all of East of England.
If substance use counselling is not quite what you are looking for, addiction counselling, counselling for drinking problems and anxiety counselling may fit better in Cambridge.
If you would like to read more first, I have written about once an addict, always an addict? and three ways to handle a craving.
Within reach of Sussex? substance use counselling is offered in the room in Hove, where the room is as well as online; see the full list of areas.